There are about a dozen wineries in the state of Alabama — not many when you compare it to California’s roughly 3,700 wineries and only a minuscule amount compared to all 8,806 bonded wineries in the United States. Alabama has never been known as a wine producing state, but that doesn’t mean wine isn’t important to Alabama’s history.

The early French learned from trial and error that it was nearly impossible to grow Vitis vinifera (the native grapes of the Mediterranean region and central Europe) in Alabama due to the weather and soil conditions.

In Baldwin County, two small colonies on Mobile Bay (Daphne and Lambert) were founded in the 1890s by Italian immigrants. They grew grapes and made wine with modest success for the Mobile market. There were three wineries in the Lillian-Elberta area. Established in 1910, Bartels was a successful German winery located on Perdido Bay.

But prohibition killed the wine industry in Alabama.

The good news is that there has been a small resurgence in Alabama’s wine industry. After the repeal of Prohibition, Bartels reestablished itself in 1937, but had migrated to Pensacola to serve a market ripe with aviators from Pensacola Naval Air Station. There they made about 10,000 gallons of muscadine wine a year until they went out of business in 1979.

In the early 1970s, Jim Eddins of Perdido started growing grapes for Bartels Winery. When his major customer closed in 1979, Jim was instrumental in obtaining passage of the Alabama Farm Winery Act and began producing his own wine. Perdido Vineyards became Alabama’s first winery after prohibition.

Other Alabama wineries:

Morgan Creek Vineyards, Harpersville

Vizzini Farms Winery, North Calera

Ozan Vineyard & Winery, Calera

Hodges Vineyards, Camp Hill

Whippoorwill Vineyards, Notasulga